My 18s Spring Nationals Preview; Wild Cards and Seeds Announced; Ole Miss Men Defeat Georgia; USC Men Down Pepperdine; A&M Women Stop Vanderbilt

I believe for the first time ever, I've written a preview for the 18s Spring Nationals for the Tennis Recruiting Network, which was posted today. What is quite possibly the final edition of the tournament ( it is not on the newly submitted USTA Junior Competition schedule for 2014), begins Sunday at the Mobile Tennis Center, with 128-player draws for both boys and girls.

The wild card meeting wasn't until Wednesday, so I didn't have an opportunity to include any of the wild cards in the preview, but here are the players who were given wild cards:

Boys:
Connor Curry
Alexandru Gozun
Roy Lederman
Carter Lin
Andrew Schafer
Ryan Smith
Stephen Watson

Girls:
Alexis Franco
Maia Magill
Ally Miller-Krasilnikov
Erica Oosterhout

The draws won't be out until tomorrow night, although match times will be available Saturday morning.  The seeds were announced this evening.  The top 16 (for the remaining 16 seeds, all designated as 17 seeds, see the TennisLink site.)

Boys:
1. David Hsu
2. Thomas Fawcett
3. Elliott Orkin
4. Mitch Stewart
5. Jack Murray
6. Roy Lederman
7. Andrew Schafer
8. John Mee
9. AJ Catanzariti
10. Konrad Zieba
11. Thomas Mayronne
12. Maxx Lipman
13. Christian Langmo
14. Sebastian Beltrame
15. Matthew Mendez
16. Paul Oosterbaan

Girls:
1. Brooke Austin
2. Rachel Pierson
3. Alyza Benotto
4. Taylor Davidson
5. Olivia Sneed
6. Spencer Liang
7. Brooke Broda
8. Brittany Lindl
9. Zoe Katz
10. Madison Westby
11. Monica Robinson
12. Madeline Lipp
13. Chloe Ouellet-Pizer
14. Kristin Wiley
15. Kaitlyn McCarthy
16. Keisha Clousing

Registration is Saturday from 4-9 p.m.

In college dual matches Friday, the USC - UCLA women's match was delayed by rain with UCLA having won the doubles point, and the singles matches mostly through the first sets, with UCLA winning three and USC two.  They will resume play on Saturday. (Actually, despite the release saying they would complete the match Saturday, they finished Friday night, with USC taking a 4-2 victory.)

The fourth-ranked Texas A&M women squeezed by No. 11 Vanderbilt in Nashville 4-3, with the outcome decided at No. 3 singles.

In Oxford, the ninth-ranked Ole Miss Rebels stayed undefeated in SEC
play, defeating No. 7 Georgia 4-3.  The Bulldogs had KU Singh back at the top of the lineup, but they have lost Nick Wood for the season with an ankle injury.  Ole Miss took the doubles point and got singles wins at 1, 2 and 4 for the victory. All three of Ole Miss' SEC victories have been by 4-3 scores. Another important match is scheduled for Sunday against  No. 10 Tennessee, who beat No. 11 Mississippi State today 4-2.

Out west, No. 3 USC beat No. 12 Pepperdine 4-2, with no doubles played due to the weather. Fourth-ranked Emilio Gomez played No. 1 for USC and he defeated Pepperdine's Sebastian Fanselow, ranked No. 7, 6-3, 6-4.